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sidharthan 's review for:
The High Mountains of Portugal
by Yann Martel
A set of 3 loosely related stories set in the titular High Mountains of Portugal, this book is an easy read.
It took me some time to truly get into each story, but once I was in it I was really invested. Yann Martel's prose has an undemanding style that makes it eminently readable. The plot also is always in motion, so the pages kept turning. Martel handles heavy topics like death and religion with the same serene manner as he handles the mundane details of the plot like driving a car or transporting an ape across continents. Hence the book never gets too heavy and remains a light read even when discussing topics such a death and religion.
Religion does form a central tenet in the book. Like with his famous Life of Pi, this book is also a lot more about religion than it first appears to be. Martel tries to fuse Darwinism and Christianity here and comes up with something that gives you pause to ponder. Ultimately again, it felt like it was all a matter of faith.
The middle story is somewhat of a standout. It doesn't blend with the other two in style or content. Structured as a conversation between two people for the most part, this story is the one that feels most practical but also has the most amount of magical realism to it. Somehow it felt like the other two stories were companion pieces that formed around this middle one. Yann Martel directly theorizes about faith with the audience through the monologue of one of his characters and this part is thought-provoking, but it never crosses the border to something truly brilliant.
Overall an easy, yet thoughtful read.
It took me some time to truly get into each story, but once I was in it I was really invested. Yann Martel's prose has an undemanding style that makes it eminently readable. The plot also is always in motion, so the pages kept turning. Martel handles heavy topics like death and religion with the same serene manner as he handles the mundane details of the plot like driving a car or transporting an ape across continents. Hence the book never gets too heavy and remains a light read even when discussing topics such a death and religion.
Religion does form a central tenet in the book. Like with his famous Life of Pi, this book is also a lot more about religion than it first appears to be. Martel tries to fuse Darwinism and Christianity here and comes up with something that gives you pause to ponder. Ultimately again, it felt like it was all a matter of faith.
The middle story is somewhat of a standout. It doesn't blend with the other two in style or content. Structured as a conversation between two people for the most part, this story is the one that feels most practical but also has the most amount of magical realism to it. Somehow it felt like the other two stories were companion pieces that formed around this middle one. Yann Martel directly theorizes about faith with the audience through the monologue of one of his characters and this part is thought-provoking, but it never crosses the border to something truly brilliant.
Overall an easy, yet thoughtful read.